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Notably absent were academics, scholars, human rights activists, and other critics of US and Israeli policies, the rule of law, and accountability for states that break it. In framing issues, Conference participants told attendees that international law doesn't apply when it conflicts with powerful state interests, the rights of their victims thereby unaddressed, silenced, and of no interest.
George Mason University's Jeremy Rabkin called "taking international law too seriously" dangerous, saying "It's not like the tax code." Audaciously, he claimed its principles are unclear with no court to enforce them, when he knows laws are clear and unequivocal and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague is a permanent tribunal established to prosecute individuals for crimes of war, against humanity, and genocide.
John Bolton told attendees:
"It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so - because over the long-term, those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States."
In other words, we're boss. What we say goes, and dissidents are legitimate enemies, an idea dominant in Nazi Germany and other past and current despotic states.
Hitler justified exterminating Jews for destroying the German nation through culture and democracy. He started WW II blaming Poland for a Nazi-staged incident. He declared war on Britain claiming its prime minister spurned his 1940 peace offer saying:
"If the Providence has so willed that the German people cannot be spared this fight, then I can only be grateful that it entrusted me with the leadership in this historic struggle which, for the next 500 or 1,000 years, will be described as decisive, not only for....Germany, but for the whole of Europe and indeed the whole world."
When he invaded Russia, he said "I sought no war. On the contrary, I did everything to avoid it (but) in view of the mortal danger from the Soviet Union (to all Europe)" he gave "the signal to attack myself (for) this moral struggle."
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